Cole Haynes

My name is Cole Haynes and I started this site to expose scams and common traps that families encounter when trying to purchase rent to own homes.

About Me

I’m currently 25 26, born and raised in Tampa, FL. I started buying, selling, and leasing real estate 6 years ago. The journey has been amazing so far!

Over the last two years I have been using the rent to own method to buy and sell homes. This method was very interesting to me because of the market and how tough it has been the last few years to find a buyer who can qualify for a mortgage.

Over the years, while starting out in the real estate field, I have worked jobs here and there(and everywhere!) to support myself while trying to build a stable income from real estate.

Over the last 6 months there have been SO many things happening in my life. Here are just a few:

Married my amazing wife

Bought a new home

Quit my other J-O-B and now happily self-employed

Started this website!

Why Are You Giving Buyers Advice?

I have to confess, when I first started this website about 6 months ago(5/10/2010) I had no plans to write articles and give free information to buyers (Actually, writing has always been one of my least favorite activities!). My goal was to use the site to list my rent to own homes for sale.

But something unexpected started happening!

You see, I have a small operation here in Tampa and before “going” online I didn’t pay much attention to buyers and sellers outside of my little area.

But, after building this website and writing a few “how-to” articles, I started getting calls from people all over the country! They were calling me for advice about rent to own homes they were interested in buying. Every time I wrote an article about how to avoid “scams” or find quality deals, I was contacted by more and more people who wanted my help.

It hadn’t occurred to me that there was almost nothing available online giving information on how to find, lease, and eventually buy rent to own homes.

Again, I have to admit, I never felt better helping people avoid blowing $20K(Susan!) on a rent to own scam or signing a lease on a rent to own deal that was sure to fail.

So, after a great deal of pillow talk with my wife :), I’ve decided to turn this website into a resource of information for buyers interested in rent to own homes. Hopefully this will help families use the “rent to own” method the right way and to avoid it when it will cost them.

To Your Family’s Success

I genuinely hope my site can help you avoid bad rent to own deals and guide you to find a great house you can eventually own! If you think you’ll enjoy reading more in the future, subscribe here to stay updated.

Thanks!

Comments

Janice, I hope our listings in that city provide you with a good starting point! Be sure to sign up for our latest listings email updates to receive an alert once new listings in your area become available.

Do you have any web sights in the MI area you could suggest. I have ran into so many scam web sights that I am loosing faith. Thank you for your time. Your sight gave me more info than the 20 or more others I’ve visited.

Kelly- Thank you SO much! I really appreciate it! Unfortunately I don’t have a company to refer you to in MI. Like you have seen, there are many scam sites out there claiming to offer rent to own houses. I have found that many owners who are marketing their house for sale or rent will consider a rent to own but they don’t know exactly how to set it up. I have a series of posts coming up to walk buyers through the entire process of finding a rent to own home online. Stay tuned for that!